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Convention Relationships A MOMENT IN BCOC’S HISTORY CONVENTION RELATIONSHIPS “I am grateful to God that we have taken steps to be a church of conviction – standing for something rather than against it. Our strongest attribute (and what keeps us healthy) is that we not only know who we are, but we celebrate it.” – Sarah Jackson Shelton1 Baptist Church of the Covenant began its life as a Southern Baptist Church and most of the congregation assumed it would always be an SBC church. The goal was to lead by example and gradually change the convention. Before the chartering service for BCOC, the members met and voted to affiliate with the Southern Baptist Convention, the Alabama Baptist Convention and to apply for membership in the Birmingham Baptist Association. Members faithfully contributed to the SBC entities and were present at convention meetings and paid attention to actions by the leadership and to proposed resolutions. The Covenant representatives voted their convictions and continued to believe that Southern Baptist would gradually change their beliefs on issues such as the role of women in the church and equality of all people. This did not prove true. When Dan Ivins became the pastor of BCOC, many of the congregation were weary with the continued difficult stands the convention was taking. Dan was extremely disturbed by the things that were happening in Baptist life. In the summer of 1988, Covenant appointed an ad hoc Convention Relations Committee. The committee was charged with intentional observation of the actions taken by the convention and making related recommendations to the church. One of the early recommendations was that beginning with the 1989 budget, members could choose the percentage of their missions’ gift they would give to the SBC Cooperative Program and to the Southern Baptist Alliance (Alliance of Baptists). By the 1991 budget there were four choices: SBC Cooperative Program, the Southern Baptist Alliance, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the BCOC Missions Fund. The Business Meeting of October 24, 2012, resulted in a decision to include only The Alliance of Baptists, The Baptist World Alliance, National Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Alabama Cooperative Baptist Fellowship on the 2013 pledge card. Sarah Shelton, pastor when this decision was made, commented on the breaking of ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, the Alabama Baptist Convention and the Birmingham Baptist Association. The church faced an additional decision concerning partnerships in 2018. In a letter from Sarah Shelton, Pastor, and Patrick Chappell, Chair, Council on Mission, they questioned the Illumination Project of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Among Covenant’s concerns were “If CBF exists to ‘bring a wide range of churches into a shared mission and ministry and to offer a home to all who feel called to be part of our community,’ then why is an implementation plan adopted that purposefully excludes many of the members at Baptist Church of the Covenant. Our community of faith at Baptist Church of the Covenant attempts to reach all with love. With Jesus’ command to ‘love one another,’ it is difficult to justify the decision by The Governing Board [of CBF] to accept only partial inclusion.”2 Once again Covenant entered serious conversation concerning relationships. And once again BCOC dissolved a relationship that was excluding people – the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Global affiliation was dissolved. These 6 paragraphs have given you the facts. What is not in these paragraphs are the stories of the people who walked through these decisions: the individuals whose family members gave their lives in service to God through the Southern Baptists; the stories of the individuals whose call to service was never recognized by the Southern Baptists; the people who were rejected by both the Southern Baptists and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Global simply because of who they were; the people who rejoiced when the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship was born and gave hours of energy and their trust to a group they believed would represent the love of Christ. Sarah Shelton’s words to Baptist Church of the Covenant when we dissolved our relationship to Southern Baptists give comfort and clarity to our thoughts and feelings when we separated from our partners: “Some of us still have emotional scars, abandonment, if you will, that our therapists will help us heal. Some of us will cling to by-gone days and remember when things were good. Some of us will remain sad that reconciliation was never forthcoming. And some of us are so relieved that [our relationship] has finally been laid to rest that we have a spring to our step as we anticipate an unencumbered future.”3 “… Together we can renew our hope and faith in the life that is yet to unfold. May it always be so.” 1Sarah Jackson Shelton. Farewells. The Crossroads, November 4, 2012. 2Chappell, Patrick and Sarah Jackson Shelton. Letter to Suzii Paynter, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, February 26, 2018. 3Sarah Jackson Shelton. Farewells. The Crossroads, November 4, 2012. REFERENCES: Baptist Church of the Covenant Archives. Bentley, Elna Jean Young. Where Faith Comes to Life. Birmingham, Alabama: Baptist Church of the Covenant, 2010. Raible, Peter Spilman. “We Build on Foundations We Did Not Lay.” – 2 –.
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